TO A. G. SHLYAPNIKOV

Written:Written after September 26, 1915Published:First published in 1924 in LeninMiscellany II.

      Sent from Sörenberg to Stockholm.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      page357.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

DearAlexander,

Itis a very good thing that you are undertaking to handle
the
leaflets.[1]We are drawing up a detailed plan for them,
and will soon be sending it to you and to N. I. But you
know it is still most desirable that N.I. should write the
leaflets in two copies simultaneously (with a copying-pencil
over carbon paper), and that you (or he himself) should
send us the second copy at once. For leaflets are averyresponsible thing, and themostdifficult of all forms of
literature. It is essential therefore to give them most careful
thought, and to have collective consultations. In view of
the slowness of setting up, printing and transport, the time
lost on dispatch here will be relatively small, and, in any
case, does not matter in comparison with the importance
of well-thought-out appeals.

Howdo you plan to sign the leaflets? You have forgotten
to write about this.

Kollontai’spamphlet has a good underlying idea. But
the subject is exceptionally difficult; it is extremely hard
to present it on this popular level. I think it needs
correcting. I have already written to her about this, asking her to
agree to these
corrections.[2]If she does, things will go
ahead very quickly, for I have already prepared a draft
of the corrections.

Asregards a visit to your
country,[3]there is a hitch,
first, because of lack of finance (the fare is high, and the
cost of living there) and, second, because of the dubious
police situation. We shall rather await Belenin’s return
and his news of home.

Everygood wish,Yours,Lenin

[1]Theleaflets the C.C. Bureau Abroad intended to publish for
circulation in Russia.

[2]Areference to Alexandra Kollontai’s pamphletWho Needs the
War?, issued in 1916 by the R.S.D.L.P. Central Committee.
Lenin’s corrections to this pamphlet are inLenin Miscellany
XVII, pp. 324–30.

[3]Theidea of Lenin’s moving from Switzerland to a neutral
Scandinavian country, which did not materialise.